An account of the wildlife I come across and hopefully pictures to bring the account closer

Saturday, 25 September 2010

Saturday 25th.September 2010

Unusually , yesterday was the hedgelaying day with the Surrey Hedgelaying Group , very close to a roundabout , in deepest Surrey . Which meant that for once , I had a free day today .With a sunny , but very cool morning , I spent the time at High Elms . Birdwise , things were quiet , apart from a large flock of noisy Rose Ringed Parakeets , arguing amongst themselves in an Oak on the edge of the Golf Course . Mostly just the expected species were found , but a flyover of two Grey Herons , calling , one pictured , was the first for this species at this site . A calling Chiffchaff was the only other unexpected song .In the sunshine , 3 commas were recorded warming up ,along with 4 Speckled Woods , and 2 Meadow Browns ( not pictured ) .The sun also brought out 2 Hornets , once again patrolling the fence posts , one did manage to find it's breakfast , but took it straight into vegetation , well out of camera view . This Robber Fly wasn't so worried , as it sucked the juices from it's prey .A second Hornet was seen hunting in the glade close to where Keith found the new colony of Bird's Nest Orchids earlier in the Summer , and on checking , the Orchids seemed to have all managed to reach seed heads , without being damaged or eaten , so next year's number , hopefully , will be even better . Most of the fungi found on my previous visit had gone over their best , and it would appear that the Coprinus picaceus-Magpie Fungus , are going to be few this year , so I post a shot of the only specimen found today , in a brash line , alongside the bottom path .

A fungus , probably seen before by most on the leaves of Sycamore , but maybe not realised , is Rhytisma acerinum . Even though the temperature rose , out of the Northerly wind , the unmistakable signs of Autumn , like the red fruits of White Bryony-Bryonia cretica , a member of the Gourd family , that had used Hazel as a support ,

and , back in the car park , the leaves of this Red Oak-Quercus rubra , an introduced species from North America .